SFIA describes the skills and competencies required by professionals in roles involved in information and communication technologies, digital transformation and software engineering. Learn more about what SFIA is, its design principles, who uses it and why they use it.

SFIA provides a common language throughout the skills management cycle. This improves communication and understanding for all involved e.g. line management, HR and employees. By using SFIA, organisations can achieve a consistent and integrated skills and people management approach.

At the core of SFIA is a comprehensive set of descriptions of professional skills and generic attributes. This section describes how it all fits together to form a simple, yet powerful, and proven approach.

SFIA is industry and business-led and at its core is the need for experience. SFIA's model for professional capability is holistic and includes experience, professional skills, knowledge, behaviours, qualifications and certifications. SFIA is used by the world's leading professional bodies to define their professional competencies, to support their accreditation schemes and their bodies of knowledge.

The documents you need to understand and adopt SFIA can be downloaded here. They include the 132-page reference guide to SFIA 7 (specifically designed for ease of use), a very popular A3 chart summary chart, and an Excel spreadsheet of the skill and skill level descriptions.

SFIA is non-prescriptive in how you, as an employer, can use it. You can pick it up and flex and adapt it to suit your needs and desired outcomes. Many employers are interested in guidance from the SFIA Foundation to learn from others and to help drive good practice and consistency of outcome.

Accredited Training is the best way to gain a good understanding of the Framework and an insight into how it can be used effectively to deliver real benefits in enhancing the capability of an organisation through the management of the skills of its staff.

The SFIA Foundation authorises Training Providers to ensure that their accredited courses are only delivered by SFIA Accredited Consultants. That means that their trainers will have active experience in skills management, not just knowledge of the SFIA framework.

Recognition for your employers is a good way to embed the use of SFIA in your organisation. The SFIA Foundation provides formal recognition for the people who are driving and supporting your adoption of SFIA. There are 3 levels of recognition: